Adventures of Indiana Jones, The: Bonus Material (2003)

Details At A Glance

General

Extras

Category

Adventure

Main Menu Audio & AnimationMain Menu Audio & AnimationFeaturette-Making Of-Raiders of the Lost ArkFeaturette-Making Of-The Temple of DoomFeaturette-Making Of-The Last CrusadeFeaturette-The Stunts Of Indiana JonesFeaturette-The Sound Of Indiana JonesFeaturette-The Music Of Indiana JonesFeaturette-The Light And Magic Of Indiana JonesTheatrical Trailer-Raiders Of The Lost Ark,TheTemple Of Doom,The Last CrusadeTeaser Trailer-Raiders Of The Lost Ark, The Last CrusadeTrailer-Re-issue Trailer - Raiders Of The Lost ArkGame-Preview - The Emperor's TombWeb LinksDVD Credits

Plot Synopsis

This is the fourth disc in the Indiana Jones DVD Movie Collection, containing "over 3 hours" of bonus material, which is primarily a set of retrospective documentaries with cast and crew on all three films in the trilogy.

The bulk of the bonus material forms a feature length set of documentaries collectively entitled Making The Trilogy, so I will review that as the main feature and all the other featurettes as "extras" in this review.

Making The Trilogy consists of three featurettes:

Raiders Of The Lost Ark

The Temple Of Doom

The Last Crusade

All three featurettes include a set of interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, screen tests, excerpts from the films, storyboards, and other material. Each featurette is encoded as 1 title with no chapter stops. I would have preferred some chapter stops.

Raiders Of The Lost Ark (50:51)

The origin of the concept of Indiana Jones is discussed, as well as casting, including rare footage of a screen test featuring Tom Selleck and Sean Young as Indiana and Marion. Other areas covered include making the sets, costumes, and the filming of key scenes like the opening cave scene (the one with the large boulder), the Ravenwood bar scene, in Belloq's tent, in the Well of Souls, the fight at the Flying Wing, Indy being dragged by the truck, and of course the opening of the Ark.

Interviews include:

George Lucas (executive producer, story creator)

Steven Spielberg (director)

Lawrence Kasdan (screenwriter)

Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones)

Norman Reynolds (production designer)

Deborah Nadoolman (costume designer)

Frank Marshall (producer)

Douglas Slocombe (director of photography)

Alfred Molina (Satipo)

Paul Freeman (Belloq)

Karen Allen (Marion Ravenwood)

John Rhys-Davies (Sallah)

Kit West (mechanical effects supervisor)

Robert Watts (associate producer)

Kathleen Kennedy (associate to Mr. Spielberg)

Michael Moore (2nd unit director)

Michael Kahn (editor)

The Temple Of Doom (41:09)

This covers how the story of the second film grew out of leftover ideas from the first film, plus the screenwriters' fascination with India. Other areas covered include casting, and Harrison Ford's back problem during the shooting, Scenes discussed include the opening dance number, at the village, at the palace, the camp by the lake, the exotic dinner, the bugs scene, the spike chamber, the mine car chase sequence, and the suspension bridge.

The Last Crusade (35:03)

Scenes discussed include the Venice scenes, the young Indiana Jones sequence, in the Austrian castle, in Berlin, in the blimp, being chased around at the borders of Germany, the tank chase, and of course the final scenes.

Transfer Quality

Video

All the featurettes are in full frame.

The video quality is variable. The retrospective interviews are, of course, great, as are the film excerpts (presented in 2.35:1 letterboxed), which look like they are taken from the digitally remastered transfers.

There are several subtitle tracks on the disc: English, Spanish, Croatian, Greek, Hebrew, Portuguese, Serbian, and Slovenian. I turned on the English subtitle track briefly. Dialogue accuracy is okay.

This is a single sided dual layered disc. The layer change occurs between The Temple Of Doom and The Last Crusade featurette in the Making The Trilogy section of the disc, therefore is not noticeable.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness

Shadow Detail

Colour

Grain/Pixelization

Film-To-Video Artefacts

Film Artefacts

Overall

Audio

There is only one audio track: English Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded (192kb/s).

As you would expect, the audio track is acceptable in quality, with clear dialogue and no issues with audio synchronization.

I am not sure why it is surround encoded - probably for the film excerpts.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue

Audio Sync

Clicks/Pops/Dropouts

Surround Channel Use

Subwoofer

Overall

Extras

Since this is an extras disc, you better hope it has plenty of extras. Well, it does, but not as much as I would have liked. Where are the deleted scenes and the scripts? The web site does contain a number of additional items, and you need one of the DVDs inserted, as well as the InterActual player installed, before you can access the site.

Menu

The menus are 16x9 enhanced, and extensively animated with background audio. In addition, there are animated menu transitions.

Featurette - The Stunts Of Indiana Jones (10:56)

This focuses on the stunt work on all three films. Scenes covered include the Ravenwood bar scene, Indiana being dragged by a truck, coming out of the Obi-Wan night club, and the tank chase scene. The featurette is presented in full frame and Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded (192kb/s).

Interviews include:

George Lucas (executive producer, story creator)

Steven Spielberg (director)

Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones)

Vic Armstrong (stuntman)

Terry Leonard (stuntman)

Featurette - The Sound Of Indiana Jones (13:20)

This focuses on the foley effects on all three films. Sounds covered include whip cracks, gunshots, the giant boulder, punches, snakes, the opening of the ark, mine car chase, rats, and earthquakes. The featurette is presented in full frame and Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s).

Interviews include:

Steven Spielberg (director)

Ben Burtt (sound design)

Featurette - The Music Of Indiana Jones (12:22)

This focuses on the musical score for all three films by composer John Williams. Melodies covered include the theme song, the love theme, atonal music, the Nazi theme, the opening of the Ark, the Thugee ceremony, the trek on elephants, and various themes from The Last Crusade. The featurette is presented in full frame and Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded (192Kb/s).

Interviews include:

George Lucas (executive producer, story creator)

John Williams (composer)

Steven Spielberg (director)

Featurette - The Light And Magic Of Indiana Jones (12:20)

This focuses on the special effects for all three films. Scenes covered include the opening of the ark, the mine-car chase, the Indian village, the Indian palace, the cliff and the suspension bridge, the plane crash through the tunnel, the "leap of faith" bridge, and the accelerated aging of Donovan, . The featurette is presented in full frame and Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded (192Kb/s).

Interviews include:

George Lucas (executive producer, story creator)

Frank Marshall (producer)

Richard Edlund (visual effects supervisor, Raiders Of The Lost Ark)

Steven Spielberg (director)

Dennis Muren (visual effects supervisor, The Temple of Doom)

Michael J. McAllister (visual effects supervisor, The Last Crusade )

Theatrical Trailer - Raiders Of The Lost Ark (2:27),TheTemple Of Doom (1:22),The Last Crusade (2:07)

All trailers are presented in 1.78:1 (16x9 enhanced) and Dolby Digital 5.1 (448kb/s), except for The Last Crusade, which is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded (192kb/s).

Teaser Trailer - Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1:00), The Last Crusade (1:24)

All trailers are presented in 1.78:1 (16x9 enhanced). Raiders Of The Lost Arkis presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 (192kb/s), and The Last Crusade in Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded (192kb/s).

Trailer- Re-issue Trailer - Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1:35)

This is presented in 1.78:1 (16x9 enhanced) and Dolby Digital 2.0 (192kb/s).

Game- Preview - The Emperor's Tomb (1:45)

This is presented in full frame and Dolby Digital 2.0 (192kb/s).

Web Links

You are promised an "exclusive web link" if you put the disc into a PC with a DVD-ROM player and install InterActual Player.

DVD Credits

This is a set of 12 stills.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view
non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually
also NTSC compatible.

The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on:

French subtitle track

The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on:

Additional foreign language subtitle tracks

The two versions appear identical apart from foreign language content.

Summary

The Adventures of Indiana Jones: Bonus Material is the fourth disc in the Indiana Jones DVD Movie Collection, containing all the bonus material.